Biology

Can you guess the subject of this photograph?

The most common guesses include a geode, a misshapen pomegranate, and a “period rock.” But all these guesses are wrong. Scientific American’s Becky Crew explains that this bizarre-looking specimen is actually a sea creature (Pyura chilensis, to be exact, but known less formally as a “sea squirt.”) It’s commonly found in the coastal waters of…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Fossils give hope that life can flourish on surprisingly primitive planets

How soon after a planet’s formation can animal life emerge? The answer to this question could influence how we search for life on other worlds, as well as the types of life we look for. Until recently, experts estimated that animals emerged on Earth around 555 million years ago, meaning that complex life can get…

io9 George Dvorsky

An upside-down waterfall of baby octopuses is equal parts adorable and gross

It’s not uncommon for many species of octopus to die promptly after mating, but at least the sight of these cephalopods creating new life can be beautiful. Or squirm-inducing! It really depends on your tolerance for thousands of wriggling, miniature octopuses. https://gizmodo.com/the-growing-evidence-for-octopus-intelligence-5858783 Last year, biologist Richard Ross of the California Academy of Sciences’ Steinhart Aquarium…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

The Easiest, Most Horrifying Way to Create Artificial Wombs

What if you could incubate human fetuses outside your own body? In, say, a nice safe machine, or a facility somewhere? We’ve wondered about this before. Artificial wombs could help us reintroduce cloned extinct species into the wild, or perhaps even help couples with fertility problems. https://gizmodo.com/where-is-my-uterine-replicator-aka-artificial-womb-385976 But what’s the best way to create an…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

What caused the Great Coal Crash of 300 million years ago?

Coal generates nearly half the electricity we use in the United States. We all depend on the fossilized remains of plants — but the vast majority of the coal in the ground comes from a single era, from 360 to 300 million years ago. What caused the Great Coal Crash of 300 million years ago,…

io9 Tim Barribeau

How to cure a hangover — with science!

It’s Saturday night and your drunken conversation has turned to the subject of hangover cures. Unfortunately, this is also probably the time when you are least equipped to separate fact from fiction (and let’s face it, when it comes to talk of hangover prevention, the former is often in woefully short supply). Let the folks…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Would you play tug-of-war with a 450-pound tiger?

We can’t decide how we feel about the “Tiger Tug” exhibit at Tampa Bay’s Busch Gardens. Regardless of how you feel about zoos or animal captivity, playing tug-of-war with a 450-pound Bengal tiger certainly sounds exciting — and watching video of a tugging match even gives one the impression that the tigers enjoy the stimulation.…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

How to Kill a Parasitic Worm Living Inside of You

Parasitic worms are the stuff of nightmares — worms as big as twelve feet long can rummage through your intestines, and then leave in the middle of the night. Urban legends tell tales of tapeworms carried by diet pills. Some of the weird schemes for removing these parasites include a combination of duct tape, candy…

io9 Keith Veronese

Why are dolphins smarter than most other mammals?

Everyone knows that dolphins are smarter than most other creatures -– but now we have the genetic evidence to prove it. A recent analysis of the bottlenose dolphin’s genome has shown that, like humans, a good portion of its genetic makeup is devoted to the development of its nervous system. The discovery shows that intelligence…

io9 George Dvorsky

Mutated pests are quickly adapting to biotech crops in unpredicted and disturbing ways

Genetically modified crops are often designed to repel hungry insects. By having toxins built into the plant itself, farmers can reduce their use of environmentally unfriendly insecticide sprays. But as any first-year evolutionary biology student can tell you, insects are like the Borg in Star Trek: they quickly adapt. And this is precisely what is…

io9 George Dvorsky

How to Give People the Feeling of Déjà Vu

You’ve probably experienced the sensation of déjà vu — that eerie sense that you get when you know you have seen or done something before, even if you couldn’t have. It’s the closest we can come to experiencing a real-life time loop. https://gizmodo.com/lets-do-the-time-loop-again-and-again-5206173 How does your brain make things seem familiar when they aren’t? Let’s…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

How Exactly Could a Squid ‘Inseminate’ Your Mouth?

The internet was shocked and astonished a couple weeks ago, when we all learned that a woman ate some parboiled squid — which managed to inseminate her mouth, because its spermataphores were still functioning. How could this happen? Danna Staaf from Squid a Day, who first brought this cringe-making phenomenon to light, explains the science…

io9 Danna Staaf

This Is What Child Birth Looks Like, From the Inside

Back in 2010, a team of German doctors announced that they’d recorded the world’s first MRI of a woman giving birth. Back then, only still images were available—but now the researchers have released the video, and it’s spellbinding. https://jezebel.com/groundbreaking-mri-shows-childbirth-from-the-inside-5708217 New Scientist explains how the video, which you can watch below, was acquired: The video captures…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

What causes brain freeze?

Pretty much everyone has experienced brain freeze (also known as ice cream headache) at one point or another. And while scientists have learned a fair bit about what might cause brain freeze, there’s still much we don’t understand about what gives rise to this painful phenomenon. In this installment of SciAm’s Instant Egghead, Ferris Jabr…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

How many calories does thinking burn?

One of the main reasons humans are the animal equivalent of gas-guzzling SUVs is our giant freak brains. Our grey matter burns a lot of energy, and that means we need a lot of food to fuel them. But if that’s the case, why aren’t you losing weight just by sitting at your desk? Last…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

10 Ways the Human Microbiome Project Could Change the Future of Science and Medicine

When astronomers talk about the number of planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, they talk in terms of hundreds of billions. When microbiologists talk about the Human Microbiome — the bacteria, viruses and fungi living in and on each of our bodies — they talk in terms of hundreds of trillions. Earlier this month, the…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Australians find a vampire-like mosquito that breeds and lurks beneath cities

As if blood-sucking insects weren’t nasty enough, Australian researchers have discovered an offshoot of the Culex molestus mosquito that has adapted to urban environments, breeding and lurking about in dark crevices and pipes found beneath cities. And unlike other mosquitoes, this one can lay its eggs before requiring its first blood feast. Most species of…

io9 George Dvorsky

A family dog could keep your kids from getting asthma

Animals get a hard rap when it comes to cleaning. They trigger allergies, leave fuzz everywhere, and gleefully destroy furniture. Now it looks like having them around might serve some long term good — especially if you have young children. Research being presented at 2012 General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology has shown…

io9 Tim Barribeau

These sharks are so slow they can only catch you if you’re asleep

Greenland sharks live in by far the coldest waters of any shark species. That’s bad news for a cold-blooded species, and the best way to conserve their energy is to move as little and as slowly as possible. That’s why it’s so strange that scientists have found seal remains inside the stomachs of these Greenland…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

You can accidentally get an STD from a koala

Yes. You can. Now try to sleep tonight. Apparently, the koala population is threatened by a terrible and widespread outbreak of chlamydia. And it can be spread to humans. No. Not that way. Between 2001 and 2008, koala populations dropped 45 percent in urban areas, and 15 percent in nature. Researchers were puzzled as to…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Can you guess the subject of this photograph?

Fossils give hope that life can flourish on surprisingly primitive planets

An upside-down waterfall of baby octopuses is equal parts adorable and gross

The Easiest, Most Horrifying Way to Create Artificial Wombs

What caused the Great Coal Crash of 300 million years ago?

How to cure a hangover — with science!

Would you play tug-of-war with a 450-pound tiger?

How to Kill a Parasitic Worm Living Inside of You

Why are dolphins smarter than most other mammals?

Mutated pests are quickly adapting to biotech crops in unpredicted and disturbing ways

How to Give People the Feeling of Déjà Vu

How Exactly Could a Squid ‘Inseminate’ Your Mouth?

This Is What Child Birth Looks Like, From the Inside

What causes brain freeze?

How many calories does thinking burn?

10 Ways the Human Microbiome Project Could Change the Future of Science and Medicine

Australians find a vampire-like mosquito that breeds and lurks beneath cities

A family dog could keep your kids from getting asthma

These sharks are so slow they can only catch you if you’re asleep

You can accidentally get an STD from a koala

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